xCBL 4.0 Final Release Notes

About xCBL 4.0

xCBL 4.0 is the first release of xCBL using W3C XML Schema (XSDL) as the canonical form. This will be the standard for future releases of xCBL. Previously, all xCBL releases were based on SOX schema. xCBL 4.0 also represents an initial alignment with the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) initiative. Some of the UBL recommendations have been adopted in the design of xCBL 4.0. As UBL continues to evolve and mature, additional recommendations and standards will be adopted by xCBL.

With a few exceptions, business documents that existed in xCBL 3.5 have been carried over to xCBL 4.0. New documents have also been added to xCBL 4.0 to support integration of applications with backend ERP systems.

xCBL 4.0 Features

Multiple namespaces - A major difference between xCBL 4.0 and previous xCBL versions, aside from being XSDL based, is the use of multiple namespaces. The use of multiple namespaces follows a UBL recommendation and provides greater flexibility for versioning of business documents defined within xCBL. The structure of the namespaces allows for independent versioning of namespaces. In previous versions of xCBL, if a single change was made to the schema, all of xCBL had to be released as a new version. The use of multiple namespaces also has other benefits, such as for performance.

Retains the semantics of xCBL 3.5 - xCBL 4.0 is derived from xCBL 3.5. In general, there is no is no data lost going from xCBL 3.5 to xCBL 4.0 but there are some cases where elements from xCBL 3.5 have been dropped.

Transformation Maps - Transformation maps between xCBL 3.5 and xCBL 4.0 are created using a third party tool. Some of the transformations have been completed but work continues towards a final set and we are exploring the best way to make these available. Please use the yahoo-xcbl discussion group if you have questions about the transformations (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xcbl-discuss/).

General changes from xCBL 3.5 to xCBL 4.0:

• Addition of new optional elements to add functionality.
• Update of codes in enumerated code lists.
• Modification/additions to improve document robustness.
• Some cardinality changes to eliminate ambiguity and ensure a document contains required basic information.
• Removal of elements no longer needed, not used, or provided duplicate information.
• Document structure changes - retain the same information but simplify the document.
• Element name changes to reduce/remove ambiguity and correct inconsistencies.

xCBL 4.0 Namespaces

For xCBL 4.0, an "RRN" (Resolvable Resource Name) uri scheme has been adopted for namespace declaration. This is similar to what was recently done to the xCBL 3.5 single document XSDL versions. We are in the process of formally submitting the uri scheme to relevant bodies.

Changes to Beta Version:

Changes made to the final version of xCBL 4.0 from the beta version are:

• Code list changes. Duplicate codes (differing only in case of chars) were removed from RefereceTypeCoded and LocationQualifierCoded.
• Addition of InventoryReport document. This is a new document that is contained in the materialsmanagement namespace
• RegionCodeType - added region codes for Italy into the list. These existed in 3.5, but were not in the new specification used for 4.0. We have decided to add these back for backwards capability.
• TaxType - The child element Percent altered to use new PercentType. Necessary to enforce consistent use of the element going forward.
• Digital Signature Container. Move the location of the Digital Signature container for each document from the header level to the root level at the end of the document. This is a change to the following documents: Order, ChangeOrder, OrderResponse, Invoice, PaymentRequest, RemittanceAdvice, AdvanceShipmentNotice, GoodsReceipt, PlanningSchedule, ShippingSchedule, AvailabilityToPromise, AvalabilityToPromiseResponse, Quote, RequestForQuotation.
• Rename all ManufacturingToParty to ManufacturingParty - in materialsmanagement/ASNPartyType, preordermanagement/QuotePartyType.

xCBL 4.0 Documents List

Click here for a list of all the documents in xCBL 4.0, together with descriptions.